Great forum...saved a bunch on the VATS bypass recomendation. My 97 SSE is very sluggish going up hills. The more gas I give it the more it seems to lug. It will eventually shift down into 3 and then it goes fine. Lately I just put it in 3 before aproaching the long hills to avoid the situation. Sometimes I will just tap the brakes to unlock the converter on the shorter hills.
The car runs great otherwise and gets 27 mpg. I have cleaned the MAF, changed plugs and wires, new delco coils. The Upper manifold was changed recently with no help.

Im not sure if I have a power loss under load problem, or my converter isnt unlocking as it should. Can others on the site get over long steady hills without the converter unlocking?

well were abouts do you live in the mountains or more just foothills. also its common for bonnes to lock the converter up around 47-50 MPH (this is what i know of my car) so are you approaching a hill around that speed in denver or is it higher speeds and lower hills

also the converter wont unlock unless moderate throttle is applied ussually around half throttle to unlock it specially towards the 45-50 MPH mark

I live in SF bay area. the hill I have most problem with is a pretty good one between Vallejo and American Canyon. I usually get a runnin start about 70 mph or so and it dogs down pretty quickly. I have noticed the converter will lock up in 3rd gear...is that normal?